Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Converting Arachnarok into a Tervigon: Part 2, Along came a spider!

 Old School here and I am making some progress with the conversion of the Arachnarok into a Tervigon. I went with the drider concept as you can see under the influence of the commenters and the authors here. I am pretty happy so far and have a few pics to share and some questions to ask of all the skilled converters out there, so let's dive in ...

 ... alright, since I am the only person I know or have seen on the web making this conversion right now, I have decided to take some aspects of this conversion to places I otherwise may not have. The arms for instance. I wanted the arms to be large enough (or long enough) to be able to reach down near the ground level, after all, how would this creature defend itself. So what I did was craft a couple of large scything talons into some wierd "claws" of the claws and teeth persuasion, which could also serve as Crushing Claws in a pinch. The ends are made from the forked tail from the Trygon set. The right arm (model's right) is repositioned thanks to some sharp blade work so the arms don't both look the same.
 I decided to craft the legs from scything talons to balance enough tyranid parts into the model to outweigh the spider parts. I cut the thumbs off the large carnifex talons and shortened them to look like the might have the girth to support the massive abdomen of the Tervigon. I then used the smaller carnifex talons for the front limbs to give that creepy spider reaching look while also balancing out the shartened length of the rear limbs. I also used shorter limbs since the height of the model would be equal to the Trygon if I did not (this is a HUGE model). I may still cut the thumbs from the front set of legs, but I am not sure at this point and have left them for now.

 Oh, I should also mention that the arms and head are magnetized so I can customise the head and switch out the arms for scything talons or crushing claws if I want. The top mounts on the carnifex torso will be filled in and covered with a bit of modified carapace later to hide the holes and to add a little armor to this beast. (there is still quite a bit of green stuff work left to do).

The abdomen was originally covered in little holes with spiders peeking out ... this would not so, so I made green stuff lumps to match the existing lumpy abdomen parts and to enhance the swollen nature of the creature. I may add some areas where you can glimpse the shape of a termaguant head as well st some point but haven't crossed that bridge yet.

 Here is a view of the other side. There is a gap in the bottom of the model I will likely use to display a gaunt in mid-birth from the belly of the spider. That will be under the abdomen and just in fron of the two little spinneretts on the backside.
 Here is a view of the rump, which required a little filling in the gaps left suring construction. If you are building a Tervi from this kit or just building the fantasy model, be aware that there will be gaps that need filling, so have the GS or other gap filler ready.

 Here is the part that I really want to get some thoughts on. Now I know I said there will be gaunts birthed from the bottom, but there is also this opening which used to be the spider's mouth, but now looks like a rather nasty birth canal. I could cover this with armor and GS in the rest by sculpting flesh, but I wanted to see if folks out there thought I should leave it and build up some flesh around it to look like gaunts may also be birthed from the front of the model. For this I would make some slime effects to mimic the mucus seeping from an active cavity.
Here is another view of it. On one hand, I wonder if the area would just seem like an exposed weakspot on an otherwise tough looking model or if it would look awesome to have a nasty birth canal in the front. Take a look at all the pics and the anatomy of the model and let me know what you think.

All in all, I am very exited about this peice, though there is much work to be done. I can't wait to hear some feedback from you all to get some ideas about where to go from here so I can finish the construction and move on to the painting of this nasty "mom bug"!

27 comments:

  1. Excelent job!

    Its everything it should be and more.
    The only suggestion i could give would be when comes to basing, to have some termigaunts on the base that look like there covered in some kinda placenta or something else all goo like.

    When im doing my base im thinkin of using clear silicon over pure black gaunts, to give that whole fetus inside goo-egg feel.

    Shame you have no step-by-step pictures and instructions, cause alot of people would want to make there own after seein this i rekon.

    Again, great job!

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  2. Definately the best Tervigon conversion i've seen to date! Great job!

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  3. in regards to the mouth, dont forget the thorax swarm this baby mumma can take, so id consider using it to make some sort of hive-like bulg or something.
    makes more sense to me than spawning gaunts infront of it, if they are spawned behind it could just keep on moving forward while pumping them out, if you look at it in terms of fluff more than gaming.

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  4. Big mama is lookin PHAT!

    That thing looks scary as hell dude.

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  5. SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

    Damn, that's good.
    Not so sure about the claws, but it still looks good.

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  6. I completely agree with what Mephistopheles said.

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  7. That looks great so far! I don't really like the arms too much, though - they seem too thin and small for a body that big. Kind of T-rex syndrome.

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  8. @tzeentchling & adam- You gotta take into account though, it is pretty much a big alien insect or bug moreso than an arachnid.

    If you look up pictures of many insects that move primarily on there rear legs, using the front legs like a set of arms, the front legs are generally smaller, and a noticable size too.

    As the front half is smaller, with all the weight being in the back, the legs are much bigger where they need to be.

    some examples include:

    Cicada from Australia prior to its metamorphis, picture can be found here:
    http://www.earthlife.net/insects/images/hemipter/cicada3.JPG

    Fig-Eater Beetle from the USA, picture can be found here:
    http://www.arizonensis.org/sonoran/fieldguide/arthropoda/cotinis_mutabilis.html

    Dung Beetle from Africa, picture can be found here:
    http://www.ngoko.com/ngoko.htm

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  9. awesome conversion, keep up the nice job!!

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  10. That is equal parts terrifying and disgusting! Excellent work, can't wait to see it painted up.

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  11. That's very cool, I wouldn't say Tervigon exactly but a very cool custom Tervigon model if you catch my drift..

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  12. Amazing model. I really like the birthing canal where it is. I would make it look really gooey with a gant possibly squeezing out. The only part that I am undecided about is the front arms. They look a little too lobsterlike. Overall great model.

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  13. Yeah, the arms are magnetized, so they are by no means a permanent part of the model.

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  14. I'd really hate to ever see something like that in person. All nasty laying alien babys :P

    It's pure awesomeness.
    I like this line "wierd "claws" of the claws and teeth persuasion" Heh.

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  15. I'm gonna have to agree the claws look out of place and give it the appearance of a crab from the front.

    Judged

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  16. Not too sure if 'beautiful' is the word I want to use, but it's the sentiment I want to convey to your idea, and your work so far. I'll be watching this with interest! nice one!

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  17. The birth canal is missing the labia minora.

    As far as the arms go, I'm no board for them. I'd like to think that something that births out massive amounts of little guys has hands that articulate in case one got stuck. I'd think about trying to put like 2 sets of genestealer hands near the birth canal, maybe helping pull a guant out or something that expresses the fact that they're there to help birth. Refer to pictures of spiders little mouth hands they have
    called chelicerae. I think they'd look awesome right there in front by the birthing cannal and add to the ratio of nid parts vs spider parts but at the same time compliment the spider aspect of the model.

    Lastly, it needs more legs.

    Also, I'm sure you know, but don't forget in game terms, this model isn't some badass wrecking ball of destruction. Especially how you play it; it's a brood mother. I think its pretty much perfect.

    Looking at the pictures one more time I almost want to to be like dragging its ass under the weight of all those babies. The face howling like that makes me think of some fat ass preggo chick who is at like week 41 just wanting to die. I remember when my wife was like that she was dragging ass...

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  18. Actually they are called pedipalps, chelicerae are the upper fangs.

    I think making the spiders mouth into a birthing spot would be good. I think something more like an ovipositer would be cool. Kind of like a retractable muscular tube that pushes gaunts out. Think water slide.

    So far it looks amazing, keep up the great work!

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  19. Ah google fails me again...or i fail at using google. I was torn on whether that was what I wanted or not. I learned all those parts in like 8th grade science; I can't even pretend like I knew what that was off the top of my head like I was on jeopardy. All I know is I was going for those little tiny hands that spun Bilbo up when Shelob got him.

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  20. Looks great, when I thought about doing the same to the model (not that I play nids so I've so far held myself back!) I thought that If I removed the stings at the back these could be combined into one oviposter/birthing canal as i prefered the idea of the gaunts being born into the relative safety of the rear of the model.
    Love the drider shape, great job!

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  21. @CVinton- Dude i think youve got it a lil confused in a few spots...
    The spider has a few small almost finger like protrusions around where the web comes out, that it uses to help aim, shape and feed it out.
    What Shelob used to wrap up FRODO in her web with was i think you make find her front legs, as they are what she grabbed and then spun him with

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  22. We're getting caught up in details here. The whole point wasn't to identify whether or not spiders have little mini hands by their vaginas and if so what they're called.

    AHAHAHA, I just realized I wrote bilbo. Well played...I've only read all the books and watched the movies a billion times. Quality. Nice call out on that, I totally deserve it.

    But back to the point. Whatever they're called on spiders and whatever they're function on spiders, OST should put little hands right in front of this plastic models birthing vagina that look like they're whole purpose is to help birth gaunts.

    I'll have to remember that 40k and spiderology (correct me, I dare you) go hand and hand next time I have a high school biology test. :)

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  23. @CVinton-
    Spinnerets is the name ive located for what your talking about.
    And to temp fate, its ARACHNOLOGY. Now i awate the smiting :P

    Im more inclined against the lil arms myself, if 1 got clogged it would just push it out with another.
    And if it got clogged, i guess the beast rolled a double then :P

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  24. Wow! This looks awesome! I thought of this yesterday, but didn't have the models -- here you are nearly done! It's superbly put together!

    For the hole in the front -- there's not a standard weapon for stinger salvo. You can use flesh hooks from the warrior kits and mount them around and in that area. Just an idea.

    Steve
    Warhammer Armies

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  25. AWESOME!!!

    Please keep us updated on the progress!!!

    Thanks for the post.

    DPAK

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  26. looks awesome would love to c it painted . really cool . can't wait to c the paint job and baseing .

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